Ummm. No, the coldest most forgettable part of the world doesn't strike me as awesome.
As far as backstory goes...man I can't think of any thing. Weird global warming where the ice becomes a very important material for refinery?
You know..I agree. Fuck it space commies vs. The kingdom of Antarica.
It's not forgettable. It's a really fascinating place and the least touched by humanity.
The NSSR are jerks and they're trying to take over the solar system. The Kingdom of Antarctica, having a policy of isolationism, is largely ignored by the rest of the world until it's revealed that they have a technology based on a mysterious element that's useless until it's subjected to extreme negative temperature. This technology?
Lasers! Pew pew! Or something. Cooltech is cooltech and could be anything.
That's good, I honestly don't know which I would prefer. I suppose a lot of what I like depends on the world and setting - the black and white is better with fantasy than, say, cyberpunk IMHO. However, the gritty world can also go really well with fantasy if done right. Basically I suppose it would boil down to: clear cut is best with fantasy and grim dark is good with anything but best with futuristic or modern day. But yeah, just my two cents on that lot.
I guess that makes sense. Medieval settings played straight breed dark stories because it was a dirty, bloody time. Fantasy, though? That could be anything. Look at Discworld.
When you're coming up with a story, you either see or imagine a setting and you go "I like that, I want to make up a story as an excuse to explore this setting some more and make it my own" or you imagine a story and you're all "man I could totally make this work with [blank] setting."
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I like this thread because I can talk about these ideas without turning each and every one into a game.